conference
was that Matthew Houston, a member of the committee, became convinced
of the justice of the views of Barton Stone and his associates, and
became an advocate of their cause.

After prolonged discussion, the synod suspended the five ministers,
upon the ground that they had departed from the established creed of
their church. The ministers insisted, however, that as they had already
protested and withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the synod, that body
had no power to suspend them--"no more," to quote Stone's words, "than
had the Pope of Rome to suspend Luther after he had done the same
thing; for if Luther's suspension was valid, then the entire Protestant
succession was out of order, and in that case the synod had no power;
so that the act of suspension in this case was utterly void."

The action of the synod created great excitement and much dissension
throughout the country, and not only churches, but families, were
divided. Many persons, convinced that the turmoil was produced, not by
the Bible, but by human, authoritative creeds, were henceforth set
against such creeds, as being disturbers of religious liberty and
detrimental to Christian unity.

At the first regular appointment at Cane Ridge, after this action of
the synod, Barton Stone tendered his resignation of the ministry of
that church. It was not accepted, however, for he had, during his six
years' ministry, labored to good purpose, and, with the exception of
Hiram Gilcrest and Shadrac Landrum, the church-members were all in
harmony with their minister.

As soon as the church refused to accept Stone's resignation, Hiram
Gilcrest demanded that his name and that of his wife should be stricken
from the church books. The church would have granted them letters of
dismissal, but these he would not accept. Shadrac Landrum, though
equally bitter in his opposition to Stone's teaching, did not, when it
came to the test, withdraw from the church. Thus Gilcrest stood alone;
and it was a bitter day for the stern and narrow, but conscientious,
old man, when he found himself thus deserted by his only ally, and
turned adrift from the church of which, until two years before, he had
been the most influential member.

Soon after their separation from the Lexington Synod, the five
ministers constituted themselves into a separate organization, which
they styled "Springfield Presbytery." In a pamphlet entitled "The
Apology of the Springfield Presbytery," they state